InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "You take your left foot out!"

Dani (placebo_effect) wrote,
@ 2009-12-30 22:54:00

Current mood:	uncomfortable
Current music:	Rufus Wainwright
Entry tags:	bitching, gtst, not impressed

I can't take any more gay-bashing plots!
So my newest addiction, Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden from the Netherlands, is going to have a gay-bashing incident in its New Year's Eve episode. And I just saw the preview clip and I'm so not looking forward to this episode. Meaning I'm actually thinking about just skipping it (I probably won't, though), because I can't bear the very idea of it happening.

GTST features a gay character called Lucas Sanders since last summer. He's made of pure awesome. In his late teens, completely confident and happy with who he is and unapologetic about it, speaks his mind, enjoys life. He's portrayed by the lovely Ferry Doedens and so far I've been completely in love with everything this show has done.
Lucas came back to the Netherlands after living in the USA for several years. He had to come to terms with his relationship to his mother, because he felt like she wasn't there enough while he was abroad. Also she didn't know he was gay until that point and had to deal with it, but she came around and it was all rather natural and no one made too big a deal of it.
Lucas was then involved in a plot with the homophobic Dex. Of course everyone suspected him to be gay, but thanks to an unexpected storyline twist we now know that that's probably not the case, but that he has been abused by his soccer coach at the age of 14. I give GTST massive credits for daring to pick this subject, for the unexpectedness and the superb acting by everyone involved.
At the moment Lucas (who has never actually been in love before) has fallen for his seemingly straight best friend Noud. And he's really, really sweet, clumsy and adorkable in this plot.

So much as far as the awesome is concerned. But now both Noud and Lucas will be viciously bashed on New Year's Eve for a completely harmless hug between friends.

Now of course I'm very well aware that horrible things like that happen every day and yes, even in tolerant countries like the Netherlands. Still I think it isn't necessary or good to include a gay-bashing in every single gay (or coming-out) storyline. After all, there are still many people who have lots of positive reactions to their coming-out and don't have to endure severe physical and emotional violence. And telling these kinds of stories is always connected with a big portion of responsibility for what young gay and lesbian people expect when coming out. But always something horrible like that has to happen, most of the time even with people ending up being hospitalized. I think it's kind of awful.

I'm not saying that soaps shouldn't tackle the issue of anti-gay violence at all, because like I said, it exists and has to be dealt with. But it would be so nice to see a story of a gay character who doesn't have to face all this crap but gets positive reactions and only has to deal with the same stuff like every straight soap character. I think it would be a great gesture and would very likely get lots of positive feedback.

And I so could've seen this happening to Lucas. He has an amazing support system of family and friends and it would have been interesting to see him deal with his unrequited crush on Noud and just interact with all the people around him. It seems to be such an open-minded, positive, non-violent environment. I thought that maybe just for once we wouldn't get the gay-bashing.

It's also a big pet peeve that they so often use the gay-bashing thing to make the closeted guy admit his feelings, come to terms with who he is or falling in love with the other one. I don't really see why that would happen. You could think that at least some would be terrified by the violence against homosexuals and be driven even further into denial. IDK.
Now I don't know if that's what's going to happen with Noud, because GTST has been pretty unpredictable so far and hardly releases any spoilers, but if they now make Noud fall for Lucas "just" because he got bashed, I'm not going to be impressed.

I'm annoyed, in case you couldn't tell already. I don't want to see all this violence, I can't take anymore of this and as we know the next gay-bashing is going to happen to Carsten on German GZSZ in January. I do not want to see it.

But guess all I can do is wait and see how it'll play out, watch through my fingers and hope that the plot is going to be better than I expected it to be. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

By the way, subbed GTST-clips can be found on the youtube channel of the amazing person called GTSTfanMark. Probably I scared everybody off with my bitching, but in case I didn't and you can spare some time, go watch, so far it's been awesome.

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aldiara
2009-12-31 02:27 am UTC (link)

Gah, seriously? That makes me sad - I've kind of had enough of those storylines too *sighs*

I just recently started watching some GTST and so far it's the only other soap-with-gay-storyline that's actually tempted me to keep going. Lucas is such a prat and I love him! It was so refreshing to meet a gay character who was already out and cheerfully slutty rather than having to go through yet another tormented coming-out story. And the characters seem real and interesting and the acting is great.

Well, maybe being prepared will help? I'm not oversensitised to the violence stuff yet because I don't really follow GZSZ (I tried, couldn't get into it) but I'm totally with you in principle... enough already. There are other ways to tell gay stories.

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placebo_effect
2010-01-01 03:45 pm UTC (link)

Hm, I've seen it. And survived. But seriously it is kind of tough, especially since I'm really invested with this storyline and Lucas as a character. He's too awesome...

I'm not too impressed with GZSZ either, I never manage to watch the whole show (some storylines just make me cringe!) and so I just watch the Cenny stuff. But I don't like where this is going either and it's not just the gay-bashing... The only reason I even bother to keep watching is that I have hope for Carsten as a character. But that's another story.

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aldiara
2010-01-01 10:38 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, same here... I found myself more interested in the stuff that had just Carsten by himself, or interacting with other people (people-not-Lenny, that is). I'm just not very interested in Lenny's character, or in their story together. Though to be fair, I only watch it very sporadically, so maybe I'm missing out on good stuff. I just don't find them very compelling as a pairing.

I'll definitely keep going with GTST though. Good stuff!

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	placebo_effect 2010-01-02 12:27 am UTC (link)
	Exactly! I don't like Lenny as a character and have some trouble with the way Alexander Becht portrays him. But he gave an interview saying that he'll leave the show in less than a year, maybe even in a few months. So I'm hoping for a good storyline for Carsten afterwards. ;) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

aldiara
2010-01-02 03:19 am UTC (link)

Yeah, I listened to the interview - he wasn't really doing himself any favours there (especially with all the stuff about how soaps aren't challenging and the acting is so easy... and then I look at him act and go "uhm dude, you're kinda bad", lol). Despite all the angsy background story, the character just doesn't seem to have a lot of depth. But yeah, be interesting to see where Carsten goes after he leaves.

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ktbob
2010-01-02 07:00 am UTC (link)

He's like the male Stella Coretti. (Did I just say that out loud? Shhh...)

No, seriously. His main expression is widening his eyes. I'm scared! I'm confused! I'm turned on! I'm confused again! I want to hit someone! I'm scared again!

I have seen flashes of depth on rare occasions, but for the most part, I find the character almost unredeemable, and the acting not strong enough to help me get past the script/character arc.

Did think it was excellent that the show had him (very obviously) wanking off to thoughts of Carsten, though. :)

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ktbob
2010-01-02 06:42 am UTC (link)

AB is leaving the show? Gah! I don't really care for him as an actor, but seriously - all this freaking build-up and angst and OTP-ing with Carsten and he's gonna split?

Oh, dear, the fanboards are going to be *pissed*. :)

And yes, I watch sporadically, and mostly for Carsten. The over-the-top violence of that whole storyline annoys me. And I don't know how you redeem someone who threatens an elderly store owner with a broken bottle.

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lilithilien
2009-12-31 05:57 am UTC (link)

I've tried to watch the other gay soaps, I really have, but they always leave me cold. But after reading this, I was curious enough to take a look. And, well, thanks a hell of a lot. Aldi and I just spent the last 3 hours mainlining GTST. Because we needed a way to fill those four hours a night we were wasting on sleep. ;)

This is great stuff! The actors are talented and natural, the dialogue is believable, the conflicts are nuanced. And yeah, there's the soapy stuff and I think it takes itself a bit more seriously than AWZ, but that's okay. Lucas is wonderfully pratty and I adored the process of him and Janine trying to find their peace -- it wasn't the normal coming out angst, but had a very genuine feeling of teenage rebellion and the total miscommunication that botches everything. It was brilliant! (Tho I would love to see Janine with Deniz "I spent 8000€ on clothes and parties" Öztürk. She would pull out all her beautiful hair!)

I do get what you're saying about the gaybashing, however, and I don't know how I'll feel about it. I thought that AWZ handled it well, but they were the first; when VL tried, I thought they botched it in a really irresponsible way. If GTST tries to do something different, it could be pretty cool. I do know that, based on what I've seen tonight, I am curious enough to want more.

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placebo_effect
2010-01-01 03:57 pm UTC (link)

LOL, my pleasure. You shouldn't get to used to sleeping anyway or you might end up needing it. ;)

The thought of Janine trying to deal with Deniz amuses me big time! Lucas would seem angelic after no more than a couple of hours.

So, I've seen the gaybashing and I thought it was tough and also came kind of out of the blue. But we'll have to see how they deal with the aftermath.
I agree that AWZ handled the theme pretty well and with lots of sensitivity. I could live with that. But what VL did was terrible and most recently I've had trouble with the way they handled the same theme on Eastenders. I'm sick of it. :(

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ktbob
2010-01-02 06:50 am UTC (link)

And! And! One Life To Live just tossed a gaybashing plot into their storyline as well. It was a secondary character, true, but impacted Kyle and Oliver. What was worse was, the script intercut the bashing with Kyle and Fish's first attempted love scene. (They're interrupted by news of the bashing.) Did they really want people to associate two men kissing = violence and pain? Squicked me out.

Can the writers not come up with something original? GAH!

I am SO sick of it. I'd love a gay storyline that *didn't* have a bashing included.

And I agree that VL did a horrible job with the bashing storyline. Then again, pretty much everything they've done with Oliver and Christian since they got together has been poorly done. "Here, let's throw them a juicy storyline! And then wrap it up in three episodes so it's completely unconvincing and irritating! Then let's have them look cute and solve other people's personal problems!"

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